Right as Rain
by AWildeRomantic
Summary: Jack never went on the Abydos mission. Charlie never died. But when Jack accidentally activates a device Kawalsky brings by the Academy, he catches the interest of a certain Major Carter. Soon he finds himself in for one heck of a ride, and if aliens and space travel and weird DNA weren't crazy enough, he might actually be falling in love with a theoretical astrophysicist...
1. Devil in the Dress Blues

Author's Note: This is a total redux of a story I did a while ago called "Don't Cha." Basically I wanted to do a more thorough job of exploring a realistic possibility on how Sam and Jack could have met if Charlie never died. So, enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 1: Devil in the Dress Blues

Jack was surprised to see Charles Kawalsky. Not just Charles Kawalsky, but Kawalsky all dressed up and official, carrying an armored briefcase and looking very smug with himself. What he was doing in Jack's office at the academy was anyone's guess.

"I thought they had you working on some top-secret project," Jack asked, tapping his pen against a stack of manilla folders on his desk. He couldn't decide if he wanted to hug his old comrade-in-arms or slap him. He just looked too amused to find Colonel Jack O'Neill stuck behind a desk and grading things written by cadets who were ready to piss themselves whenever Jack looked their way.

Kawalsky just continued grinning as he sat down and dropped the heavy case with a clunk next to him. "Sorta, not really, I mean, I'm up at Cheyenne Mountain. Can't really say what I'm doing there. How's the kid?"

"Coming back today. Mad at his mom," Jack said. Kawalsky looked like the Colorado summer was starting to get to him, even in the air conditioned office, so Jack pulled a coke out of the mini fridge and tossed it to his friend. "You'd think that would make things easier seeing as it's something we can agree on, but…" He shrugged. "He's fourteen. What's in the box?"

"Top secret stuff." Kawalsky winked.

"Oh, for cryin' out loud!" Jack rolled his eyes. "If the little kids here are gonna get to poke at it you can at least let me have a peek." He leaned forward like he was confiding some big secret to Kawalsky. "I'm dying of boredom here, so if it's anything remotely exciting…"

"Okay okay!" Kawalsky cast a look at the closed door, then stood and set the case on Jack's desk. "Just because it's you, Colonel." He popped the locks and opened the lid of the case. Nestled in the standard slate-gray foam was a sadly disappointing little cube.

Jack wrinkled his nose. "Uhm, what is it?"

"About all we know is what it _isn't."_

"So what _isn't_ it?"

"We know it's not a bomb," Kawalsky said, running his finger around one edge of the cube. It had shiny sides, with matte edges, making it look a bit like a four sided touch screen. "We think it does something, there's faint electrical signals. But we don't really have the technology up at the mountain to open it up and figure it out."

Jack sat back and raised his eyebrows. "Where'd you get it?"

"Can't say." Kawalsky shot him another one of those damn cheeky grins. "Classified."

"I hate desk jobs," Jack muttered. He leaned forward and prodded the side of the cube.

It lit up, the sides flashing bright blue with symbols scanning over them. Both men jumped back in surprise. Jack had to admit that Kawalsky seemed especially, unnecessarily surprised, which had him worried.

Slowly, eyeing the cube like it was a dog about to lunge for his throat, Kawalsky drew his phone out of his pocket and flipped it open. "Carter," he said into it. "I'm in Colonel Jack O'Neill's office, and you need to get up here right now. It just did something."

"Who's Carter?" Jack asked when his friend had closed the phone.

"My second in command." Kawalsky let out a little nervous laugh. "Tall, blond, brilliant and I really wouldn't want to be up against her in combat. Aside from the fact that she's got a PhD in astrophysics, you're gonna like her. I've seen her take down a guy bigger than you in a knife fight."

Jack was sure his eyebrows came dangerously close to his hairline. He _wasn't_ sure who he expected to walk through his office door. According to previous experience, he didn't quite believe Kawalsky's description. It left him imagining a passably attractive egg-head who was maybe quick enough to get the upper hand in a fight.

Carter proved him dead wrong on that. So she didn't look like the usual military scientists. And she was more than just 'passably attractive.' She also looked absolutely furious with her CO. "Sir," she hissed as she stalked into Jack's office. "With all due respect, what the _hell_ are you doing?"

"Carter," Kawalsky said, giving her a lazy smile. "I'd like you to meet my former CO, Colonel Jack O'Neill. Jack, this is Major Samantha Carter."

"Colonel." Carter gave him a light nod, her expression relaxing a bit. She glanced back to Kawalsky. "He doesn't have clearance!"

Kawalsky was clearly used to this sort of behavior and waved one hand. "For one thing, I trust him. Secondly, you do realize they actually asked him to be on the Abydos mission? So he might as well be cleared."

"The whosa what now?" Jack asked, frowning.

"Five years ago, remember they tried to pull you into active duty?"

"Right, okay." Jack held out his hands, then pointed, attempting to draw the conversation back to the glowing elephant in the room. "Major, maybe you can actually give me a straight answer as to what this thing is."

"You activated it?" She asked, narrowing her eyes. She swallowed. "We don't know what it is and even if we did, I'm not sure I could tell you." Carter turned to Kawalsky again, her expression grave. "We need to let Hammond know. No one on the base was able to do anything with it. I could call - "

"Why call?" Kawalsky said, grinning. "It's not that far away. Hey, Jack, you wanna get out of the office for a bit?"

* * *

He had been to the Cheyenne Mountain complex a few times. Jack was the type of guy who liked to be out in the open field under the sky with the breeze in his face. He'd thought Kawalsky was that type of guy too, so he found it hard to imagine his friend working every single day deep in the heart of that pile of rock.

They took two different elevators down, all the way past the NORAD levels into an area Jack hadn't even known was still in use. Neither Carter nor Kawalsky offered any explanation, even as they got into heated arguments with several security checkpoint guards. Finally they led him down a hallway to a small office where a short, balding man sat behind a desk.

"General -" Kawalsky began, but the general cut him off.

"You'd better have a damn good reason for bringing a desk-jockey colonel from the academy in here."

Jack put on his most affronted look. "With all due respect, general, I highly resent that! I happen to have a good excuse for riding a desk all day." He caught a snort of laughter next to him and turned to see Carter trying her best not to giggle. She did shoot Jack a little kitty-whiskers type of grin, and he found himself thinking how cute it looked. Then he shook his head and looked back to General Hammond.

"Alright," Hammond said, still looking suspicious. "You said this has something to do with the device?"

Carter stepped forward and set the cube on the general's desk. "You'll remember all the simulations and tests we ran when we initially received the -" she stopped when Kawalsky nudged her shoulder. "Alright, just….watch this." She motioned Jack forward.

Jack shrugged and touched the top of the cube. Again it flashed to life. The general's forehead wrinkled.

"I was hoping," Carter continued, now looking at the general with a pleading expression. "That we could have Janet run some tests. The only explanation I can think of is that Colonel O'Neill has some sort of significant physiological difference to everyone we had test the device…"

"That would be up to Colonel O'Neill," Hammond said, continuing to peer at the cube. "And Dr. Fraiser would have to perform the tests off-base, at least unless he gets security clearance."

Jack sighed and checked his watch. "Well, whatever you want to do with me is gonna have to wait until tomorrow, I need to go pick up my kid from the bus station." He adopted his best stern, no-nonsense military face. "And before I agree to any sort of testing, I need to know _exactly_ what it is I'm getting myself into."

"Colonel, we can't give you full disclosure." Hammond said.

"Partial disclosure? Fractional disclosure? At least the type of disclosure where I know if I'm gonna be drugged and or poked with needles? Because I really hate both of those things."

Carter shot him a look that was half amused, and half sympathetic. "General, I can write up a plan appropriate to his level of clearance and review it with Colonel O'Neill tonight."

"As long as you don't mind coming over to my house," Jack said. "Because I do not go back to the office after 5."

Hammond chewed the inside of his cheek, glowering at the three officers before him. Finally he gave a curt nod. "Very well."

* * *

Charlie O'Neill looked a lot like his dad. That was something Jack took pride in. What Charlie had gotten from Sarah were his bright, intelligent eyes and a soft, almost meditative presence. And as much as Jack might be loath to admit it, he liked those things too. Hell, Jack liked just about everything about his son. Well, maybe except for the scowl he was greeted with when Charlie got off the bus, carrying a backpack that looked more appropriate for an extended mountain camping trip.

"I'm not going back!" Charlie said by way of hello.

Jack shuffled and started back to the car. "You hungry, kid?"

"I mean it, Dad. I hate her new boyfriend and I hate his kids and I hate everything about Denver!"

When they reached Jack's truck he stopped and pulled the sullen teen into a one armed hug. "She's your mom, kiddo. She loves you."

Charlie grunted and shrugged his father's arm off, then tossed his pack in the back of the truck. "Do you even know how much of an _ass_ David is?" he grumbled.

"Watch that mouth." Jack gave his son a pointed look. Then he cracked a grin. "But yes, I do as a matter of fact."

They got into the truck and started out of the parking lot. Charlie leaned against the door, sinking down into his oversized USAF hoodie.

"I've got someone coming over at 2100, just so you know," Jack said. "Just to do some work related stuff."

"Okay."

"You wanna just order pizza when we get home?"

"Okay."

Jack sighed and shook his head.

* * *

Samantha Carter looked exhausted when she showed up on Jack's doorstep later that night, holding a file folder under one arm. He let her in, vaguely wondering what on earth she could have spent the day doing in that mountain that would leave her looking like that.

"I could put on a pot of coffee," he said, raising his eyebrows as he led her into the living room.

Carter smiled weakly. "No sir, thank you though, I'm planning on heading right to bed after this." She sat down on the couch.

"You don't actually have to 'sir' me, you know," Jack said, wrinkling his nose a little and dropping into his favorite chair. "I spend my day yelling at cadets for starting food fights in the cafeteria, I'm not your commanding officer. Jack will do just fine."

She let out a little laugh and shook her head, pushing the file towards him. "All right...Jack. This is just a list of the tests we need to run. It's nothing invasive. A couple of MRIs and some blood work."

He flipped through the file quietly for a couple minutes, then closed it and tossed it back to her. "Well, if it's in the interest of furthering the human race…"

Carter gave him a rather enigmatic smile. "Oh, you have no idea."


	2. Just the Facts Except Not Really

Chapter 2: Just the Facts (Except Not Really)

The following morning when Charlie stumbled out into the kitchen he gave Jack a long look, then went to pull the milk out of the fridge. Sometime in the past few months he'd apparently perfected that drawn out, teenager sigh.

"Okay, kid," Jack said, setting his paper down. "What's up?"

"Who was that? Last night. I heard a chick's voice."

He almost laughed. Chick? Kids these days… "The woman I had over last night was Major Samantha Carter. She works with Kawalsky, you remember him?"

"Okay, and…"

"She was here to go over some stuff with me." Jack frowned slightly. "I just have to go in to the hospital for a few tests, that's all."

For a split second, Charlie's entire demeanor changed. He looked up as Jack, eyes wide and slightly alarmed. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Jack said quickly, waving his hand. "Yeah, I'm fine, it's not testing like figuring out what's wrong with me so much as testing to figure out what's…right…with me, I don't know." He shrugged and rolled his eyes. "There was a lot of techno blabber that I didn't understand. But I'm fine, really."

And with that Charlie slipped back into his usual sullen demeanor.

* * *

Charlie had only been gone for the week of spring vacation, but Jack was already feeling like he'd gotten out of sync with the morning routine they'd fallen into since the divorce. Breakfast. Rushing out the door. Rushing back for forgotten supplies. Out again. Dropping Charlie off at school.

He got to the Academy and had to remind himself to drive around to the hospital, rather than heading the almost instinctively familiar path to his office. He was a bit surprised to find Carter waiting on one of the benches outside the front doors, talking on her cellphone. She glanced up at Jack and smiled when he walked over, but her brow was furrowed.

"Sir, I know…" she was saying as Jack sat beside her. "Daniel _is_ taking a few days off…yeah…well, with Sha're and then Line-…" Whoever was on the other end obviously cut her off and Carter let out a little huff. "Sir. I need to go, Colonel O'Neill is here." And she flipped her phone shut.

"Let me guess…that was our lovely Kawalsky," Jack said.

Carter was still staring down at her phone. She took a deep breath before looking up at him. "How'd you guess?"

"Call it my feminine intuition," Jack said in an attempt to lighten the expression on her face. Carter smiled weakly. "Everything okay?"

"It's just…" She seemed to be fumbling for the right words. "A teammate and very good friend of mine just lost his wife recently and…" She shook her head. "It's hard, seeing him so…lost."

"I'm sorry." Jack reached out to squeeze her shoulder.

"He's not even in the military, he's a civilian consultant," Carter said. "I mean, not that it's easier for us but…" She took a breath and checked her watch. "Anyway, we should go inside, Dr. Fraiser's waiting for us."

They stood together and walked through the sliding doors into the bustling foyer of the hospital. Jack gave Carter a few minutes of silence to compose herself before he tried cracking a light hearted conversation again.

"So how's my security clearance coming?"

Carter steered him towards the elevators and hit the up button. She chuckled softly. "Lets just get the tests done and we'll go from there…"

"I feel like I'm being drug tested for a job!" Jack said, eyes wide as they stepped onto the elevator with a couple of chatting nurses. He raised his eyebrows at the major. "Can you give me _any _hint?"

"Lets just say we're working on a project that requires a very specific type of physiology that not many people have," she said slowly. "And if you have it, that would save us a lot of time and trouble."

She was still being so evasive that Jack wasn't sure what to think. "Assuming I agree to help once you tell me what it is."

"Of course," Carter said, but she wouldn't meet his gaze as they stepped off the elevator on the third floor and started down a long hallway.

* * *

Jack's immediate impression of the petite Janet Fraiser was that he would like her very much except for the fact that she had the power of threatening him with big honking needles. Despite probably weighing less than some of the weapons he'd used in his day, Jack had no trouble picturing her out on the battle field, just as calm and cool headed as she was in the exam room.

"Well, Colonel," she said, shooting him a delightfully wicked grin as she consulted her clipboard. "Looks like we've got a full morning booked for you…"

"Great." He gave them both a grin that he hoped looked more like a wince.

"You know," Fraiser continued. "I hope we find something, considering how excited you got Sam."

Jack narrowed his eyes. He caught the split second look that passed between the two women, Carter glaring, Fraiser looking innocent. It made him think they'd been talking about him beyond the realm of whatever tests needed to be done, and _that_ made him feel like he was back in high school again.

"Well," Jack said, clapping his hands together a little too cheerfully. "What do you say we get this show on the road, ladies?"

* * *

The tests, which consisted of nothing more invasive than a blood test (not that Jack was particularly fond of _that_, really) took a great deal less time than Jack had feared. After one last obnoxious MRI, Jack rejoined Carter and Dr. Fraiser in Fraiser's office.

"So what's the verdict?"

"Too soon to tell, really," Carter said, though she looked excited. "I really need to take these back to the base and check them against a few things."

He nodded. "But you're done with all the poking and the loud machines for now?"

"All done," Carter said, giving him an amused little grin. She got to her feet, holding the folders to her chest and shooting Fraiser an expectant look.

"You go on," the doc said. "I have a few things to finish up before I head back to the base."

Carter nodded, then turned with Jack as they walked back out into the hall.

"So, Major," he said slowly.

"Yeah?"

"Tell me…why does your _research_ base need its own doctor?" Jack asked. HE peered at her, the corner of his mouth twitching in a slight grin. "Especially one like Fraiser. I saw all those certificates and diplomas on her wall."

Carter paused, looking up at him with a thoroughly scrutinizing expression for a moment. "She helps with our research."

"You know what I think?" Jack paused, turning to face her so he could stare her down.

"What's that, Colonel?"

"I think your cover story _sucks_."

She gave him a sort of look that said 'Really_?_' that somehow came out looking rather adorable. Shaking her head, Carter hit the button for the elevator and stepped inside, holding the folders under her arm.

"So," Jack said, leaning against the wall of the elevator and trying his best to be casual. "Lunch?"

"I…" Carter hesitated, looking surprised by the question. "I really should be heading back to the base."

"C'mon, you're telling me you'd rather eat whatever food that your, I'm sure, gourmet cafeteria under the mountain has?" Jack flashed her a grin. After taking a close look at her he could tell she looked exhausted and probably the more fresh air she got, the better. "It's just lunch, Carter."

"It's Sam." She glanced at her watch. "And as long as I can get back by one…"

"Forty-five minutes, Sam, I promise."

"Alright then."

* * *

"So from what Col. Kawalsky's told me about you," she said as they sat waiting for their sandwiches at a nearby café. "You don't really seem like the type to end up doing office work."

Jack made a face. "Yeah, well, the original plan was to retire. But there was the divorce, and now I've got my kid to look after most of the time."

"That's a bit unusual, isn't it?" Sam asked. "The father getting the majority of custody."

"Sara moved up to Denver for a job. Charlie's school is here, and we just thought it would be easier if he finished up high school without switching."

Sam nodded. "High school is hard enough."

"Divorce is hard enough." Jack then made a little disgusted sound. "Which is why I _hate_ talking about it. So how do you like working under Kawalsky? You know I still think of him as a bright eyed major who's maybe just a little too eager for his job."

"He's a good leader." Sam said. She laughed, blushing slightly. "And with all due respect he's a bit of a nutcase. With all honesty though, I trust him with my life."

Jack raised his eyebrows. "You need to do that very often?"

"I was speaking hypothetically, which is something I do very often."

"Right." Jack winked, then leaned back as the waiter set their plates in front of them. "I know what you mean though, Kawalsky's a good guy. He's loyal, got it where it counts."

"Mhmm." She winced, then said offhandedly, "Though he is part of the reason I hesitated about lunch."

Jack scowled. "What, he can't live without you for another hour?" Then he caught the slightly embarrassed expression on the major's face. "Oh. Well, Kawalsky can also be an ass. Besides, it's not like I asked you on a date."

"Yeah, but come on," she said. "You know the colonel. And it doesn't help that I'm a bit infamous for spending every waking hour I can in my lab and ducking out of lunch offers, so…"

"So we'll just keep this our little secret for now." He winked again.

"Oh, because that'll seem so much less suspicious!" Sam exclaimed, but she was laughing.

When she looked down at her food, Jack found himself scrutinizing her for a moment. He definitely noticed something different about her here in the café than at the hospital or the academy offices the other day. The thing was, he remembered what it was like, working in a secluded program, wanting, needing to connect with someone on the outside, someone who wasn't a part of it. It was nice to see her relaxing a little though.

Sam looked up and caught him staring. The corner of her mouth quirked and she tipped her head slightly. "What're you smiling at?"

Jack rested his chin in one hand. "Nothin'."

* * *

When Sam got off the elevator on her lab's floor, she was surprised to find Daniel just about to get on. "Hey, what are you…?"

"Looking for you, actually," Daniel nudged his glasses up, turning to walk with her to her lab. "Where've you been?"

"I was at the Academy Hospital with Janet." Sam waved the file folders for him to see. "Had to run those tests on Colonel O'Neill."

Daniel's expression brightened slightly. "He was the one who activated the Ancient device, wasn't he?"

"Mhmm." Sam nodded. She quickly swiped them into her lab and flipped the lights on, then moved to spread the folders out on the table so Daniel could see. "Now, I'm no geneticist, so don't ask how this all works exactly, but look…" She pointed to a section of charts. "This isn't a normal gene, to put it simply. And a number of tests turned up all these abnormal proteins and enzymes. They're doing quite a bit, but we did manage to figure out that they're somehow spreading this slight electrical charge throughout his body…"

"So what does that mean?" Daniel asked, squinting.

"We hypothesized that this technology required some type of alien physiology to work," Sam said. "I had assumed that it was something humans just don't have but…I've been wrong before."

"Major Carter, Daniel Jackson." They both looked up as Teal'c strode into the room and bowed to them. He shot a look at Daniel, a certain rather impatient eyebrow raise that usually signified lunchtime.

Daniel still seemed to be hung up on the test results. "Have you told Hammond yet? Suppose this Colonel can activate the technology, he could be incredibly valuable to us…"

"I don't know," Sam said. She bit her lip. "They did try to get him to lead the Abydos mission, and he turned it down."

"Yeah but this is different."

"Well, I'll just have to write up a report for General Hammond and then we'll see," Sam said. She pursed her lips, giving the archaeologist and Jaffa a pointed look. Teal'c seemed to get the message, and clapped Daniel on the shoulder, steering him out of the lab.

Sam waited until their voices vanished down the hallway. She let out a soft breath, sitting before her computer and drawing the cover sheet of Jack's files to her. She squinted down at it, wondering who she could ask. She would probably have to tell the Tok'ra. If they could actually get the rather aloof and stand-offish Asgard to communicate, the little grey aliens might have an even better answer to the millions of questions buzzing in her head.

She slid a disk from the folder and put it into her computer, resting her chin in her hands as she looked at the three dimensional DNA model rotating on the screen. "Jack O'Neill," she breathed. "What _are_ you?"

* * *

Jack didn't look up when someone knocked on the door to his office. Assuming it was some cadet, he let them wait. So he was fairly surprised when he heard the door open, and was about to chew out whoever had just walked into his office, when he looked up to see General Kerrigan standing over his desk, looking amused and holding a folder under one arm.

"Apologies, sir," Jack said, immediately setting aside his work. "I assumed you were one of the wee little campers come to try and vainly elicit pity."

Kerrigan chuckled and sat in the empty chair before Jack's desk. He fixed Jack with one of his pointed looks that usually preceded a long lecture, good or bad. "You know, I remember Samantha Carter from back when she was just a cadet."

"Oh?" Jack blinked. He had barely heard from Sam in the past couple days, just a quick email saying she was still pushing around with the bureaucracy to do something about his apparently remarkable test results. Now he tried to get a glimpse of the folder Kerrigan was holding, with no luck. "Is…that what you came here to talk about, sir?"

"She was, and still is a very brilliant woman, top of her field, I hear," Kerrigan continued. He leaned forward, looking smugly amused. "So whatever the hell you did to get her all excited…"

"Ah, this is about my weird DNA or whatever," Jack said.

"Well, I don't know anything about that," Kerrigan finally slid the folder over to him. "These are all the papers making you a consultant at Cheyenne Mountain. Even my security clearance doesn't let me look in there."

"And mine, sir?"

"Just got booted up several levels, apparently." Kerrigan got to his feet. "You're to fill those out and sign whatever you need to sign. General Hammond will contact you when Major Carter and her team are back from whatever trip they're on, then you can bring those in and get everything sorted."

Jack swallowed and looked down at the folder. "And my job here?"

"Obviously your instructional duties will be taken over by your colleagues, but this is your office, Jack."

"Thank you, sir."

Kerrigan nodded and smiled, then wished Jack good luck as he turned to stride out of the room.

Jack stared after him for a minute. He took a breath and opened the manila envelope, sliding out of it a glossy folder. On the front of the folder was a bright emblem that he didn't recognize, and the words Stargate Command embossed beneath it.

"Samantha Carter," Jack muttered. "What the hell are you getting me involved in?"


	3. Willkommen Bienvenue Welcome!

A/N: Thank you all for the lovely reviews! I'm glad you all are enjoying this one!

Chapter 3: Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome!

Déjà vu all over again. Except this time none of the security guards challenged Jack's presence as Sam accompanied him down into the bowls of Cheyenne Mountain, into the Stargate Command center or whatever the hell this place was. Jack was pretty sure it wouldn't be as exciting as it sounded. That is, whenever Sam decided to explain to him exactly what _it_ was.

They went the same way they had the first time, towards General Hammond's office, but instead took a turn and entered a large briefing room. From a metal stairwell to the right Jack could hear a busy hubbub just below them. One wall was composed of a blast shield. Kawalsky sat at the table, feet propped up, a huge shit-eating grin on his face.

"Jack! Glad you could make it."

Jack very determinedly turned to Sam. "I'm going to regret this, aren't I?"

"Not in the least," Sam said, grinning.

They turned as the door from Hammond's office opened. The General himself entered and went to the head of the briefing table. Following him were two other men, a younger one with glasses and short brown hair, and a very large, darker skinned man with some weird gold thing on his forehead. The second man fixed Jack with a solemn, contemplative stare.

"Jack," Sam said, touching his arm. "This is Dr. Daniel Jackson…"

The bespectacled youngster stepped forward to shake Jack's hand, smiling before he took a seat next to Kawalsky.

"And Teal'c."

The taller man simply bowed. "It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Colonel O'Neill."

Strangely enough, Jack was convinced he would like this guy. After the introductions, everyone moved to sit at the table. Jack sat beside Sam, directly across from Kawalsky who was still fixing him with that utterly evil grin of his.

"Well, as you all know by now," Hammond began, "Major Cater and Dr. Fraiser identified Colonel O'Neill here as possessing a gene which allows him to operate the device that SG-4 brought back. It took a bit of –"

"Brass kissing, sir?" Kawalsky provided.

Hammond rolled his eyes. "Persuasion, but we got the approval to bring Colonel O'Neill into the program. I don't think I need to explain to any of you, except perhaps Colonel O'Neill himself, how important this is."

"Explanations would be nice, I like explanations," Jack said. He heard Kawalsky chuckle. "One thing I definitely don't like is surprises, so…"

"We'll be getting to that, Colonel," Hammond said, though he sounded more amused than anything. After dealing with Kawalsky for god knows how many years, he was hopefully used to a bit of snark. The general nodded to Sam. "Show him, Major."

Sam got to her feet, motioning for Jack to follow as she went over to the blast shield. She hit a button on the wall and the shield lifted, revealing a window that looked down into a space that looked to have once been a missile silo.

Jack peered down. He didn't see anything particularly shocking, except for the huge ring standing on edge in the middle of the area. He assumed it was some part of their radar telemetry gathering equipment thingies.

"That's the Stargate," Sam said, guessing the first thing his eyes fixed on. "It…well, it opens a stable wormhole that allows us to travel to other planets."

Wait.

What?

Jack frowned, then looked back at Kawalsky, who nodded. He looked back at Sam. "You do what now?"

"We travel to other planets, almost instantaneously. We've discovered hundreds and there are thousands more in the system yet to be explored. That device you activated is alien technology brought back by one of the teams."

Klaxons blared and lights flashed in the room below. Jack stared, vaguely aware that Sam was still talking. As he watched, a huge wave of something like water, except not quite, splashed out from the middle of the Stargate and then retreated, leaving a shimmering vertical pool. Two seconds later a group of four people in uniform stepped out of the pool and walked calmly down the ramp. The pool vanished. The lights stopped flashing.

Slowly, Jack turned around. The others were all watching him curiously. He decided it was better for his sanity if he just talked to Sam. "You…travel to other planets."

"Yes."

"And…aliens?"

"Yes." She bit her lip, actually looking quite concerned about his reaction.

"And…this isn't a joke?" Jack said.

"Not in the least, Colonel." Hammond motioned them back to the table. "We are able to provide a number of other files for you now that further explain the purpose and activities of the SGC."

Jack nodded, slowly meandering back to his seat. He was fairly certain this constituted as a mild form of shock. "But really, aliens?"

"Actually…" Sam nodded in Teal'c's direction.

"I am a Jaffa from the planet Chulak," Teal'c said when Jack turned to him.

Jack was silent for a full minute. "You're _serious_?"

"Jack," Sam said quietly, sitting beside him again. "Why would we be joking about this?"

"I don't know, I…" Jack shook his head. He was sure this was going to take some time to set in. He still wasn't sure if he even fully believed them, though after all those papers he had to sign, he wasn't sure what else this could possibly be. Leaning forward, Jack rubbed his hand over the back of his neck. When he straightened he found Sam looking at him, her eyes wide.

"Are you okay?" she said.

"Remember what I just said about me and surprises?" he asked, narrowing his eyes. "For future reference, this sort of thing counts as a surprise. I'll let it go just this once."

* * *

Jack got home and for a moment he stood in the doorway between dining room and living room, looking down at Charlie who sat on the couch doing homework and watching TV. He technically wasn't supposed to be doing both at the same time, but Jack's mind was still reeling from everything that had happened that day, so he said nothing about it.

"What's wrong with you?" Charlie asked, craning his head back to look up at his father.

"Nothing." Jack cracked a smile and walked over to plop down on the other end of the couch. "Weird day."

"Weird day?" Charlie raised his eyebrows. "Weird how? Weird like the day I almost shot-"

"Charlie." Jack snapped, frowning. "That's not something to joke about."

"Geeze, Dad! I was like seven. I know better," Charlie huffed. "I've had the whole 'don't play with guns' thing drilled into my brain. Not to mention you and Mom getting a divorce because of it."

Jack's expression changed slightly and he leaned forward, his forearms resting on his knees. "Hey…I told you, that's not why we got a divorce. It had nothing to do with what happened that day."

"But that's what started it, wasn't it?"

Over the years, Jack had learned how to see through his son's argumentative exterior to questions and things that were really, truly bothering the kid. This wasn't about the day Jack nearly lost his son, or the strange series of events surrounding it. It was about Charlie still not knowing where his family stood anymore.

"It was a lot of things, kiddo." Jack said quietly. "But your mom and I do still care about each other, and you're the most important thing in the world to us. You know that, right?"

His phone buzzed in his pocket, but Jack ignored it, continuing to look at Charlie.

"Yeah," Charlie said finally. He held his father's gaze for a minute, then looked back down at his homework.

Jack got to his feet and ruffled Charlie's hair affectionately before walking into the kitchen to call back whoever had called him.

"Sam," he said when she answered. "Just can't get enough of me, can you?"

She couldn't even manage a slight chuckle at that one. "SG-1 is leaving in about an hour," she said, sounding anxious. "It's…the Tok'ra, you remember I told you about them? The race my dad is an ambassador for?"

"Uhuh." Jack frowned. "Everything okay?"

"No." She took a shuddering breath. "It's my dad. He's been captured and…well, I might be the only one who can get him out."

"Out? Out of where?"

"Essentially…a planet sized version of Hell." Sam coughed. "But anyway, I just wanted to tell you, they've got a temporary office set up at the SGC, and I've told Hammond to give you some files on the –"

"Hey hey hey," Jack said quickly. "Slow down, Sam. You're going to be alright, aren't you?"

She was quiet for a moment. "You want me to tell you the truth?"

"I generally do."

"Every time we go through the gate, we don't know if we're going to be okay," Sam said. "So…you need to get used to not knowing."

"Okay." Jack sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. He didn't like it, but she sounded upset. He wouldn't get anywhere pushing her for assurances. "Okay. I hope you find your dad, and that he's all right. Stay safe. Call me when you get back."

"I'll talk to you later, Jack."

He closed his phone and stared at it for a moment, then looked up to find Charlie watching him. "Who was that?"

"Major Carter," Jack said. He moved to take a box of pasta down from the cupboard. "You hungry?"

"I thought you said she just did research."

"She does." Jack held up the pasta and a jar of sauce then moved to grab a pot when Charlie nodded approval. "I was supposed to meet with her tomorrow, but she has to go out of town to help out her dad, I guess he's sick or something."

Charlie narrowed his eyes and took a few steps into the kitchen. "You told her to stay safe. Why'd you do that?"

"Because I'm a polite human being." Jack raised his eyebrows at his son. "What's with the twenty questions?" But Charlie just shook his head and went back into the living room.

* * *

_It had been a lovely spring day. Every detail of it stood out in stark relief in Jack's mind; the sound of the wind, the smell of the flowers Sara was planting, the feel of her in his arms. _

_The sound of a gunshot from inside the house. _

_They'd bolted inside. Jack had never run so fast in his life. Had never been so terrified. Bolting into their bedroom, he threw the door open with such force that a picture fell off the wall and shattered. _

"_Charlie!"_

* * *

The following Friday night, after Jack had seen Charlie off on the bus to Denver, Kawalsky showed up on Jack's doorstep with a six-pack of Guinness.

"Thought I'd have a better chance of being let in if I brought one of these," Kawalsky said, smiling as he followed Jack into the living room. With a comfortable familiarity they sat down on the couch and popped open two bottles, almost like nothing had changed since the days when they were running special ops together.

"How's Sam?" Jack asked before he could stop himself.

Kawalsky froze with the bottle halfway to his lips. Slowly, his eyebrows rose and his mouth curled into one of his trademark, infuriating, _goddamn _smirks. "How's…Sam…" he repeated, tauntingly, slowly setting his beer down.

Jack glared daggers at him. "Just answer the question, jackass."

"Well, Major Carter is just fine thank you for asking." Kawalsky smirked and finally finished that swig of beer. "Bit bruised up and shaken around, but the team's got the weekend off and I think she may have actually left the base for once, so I'm sure she'll be fine."

"You got her dad out alright?"

"Thanks to that brilliant head of hers, yes."

The two men continued to stare at each other for a full minute before Jack broke the silence. "Why the hell are you still grinning at me like that?"

"Because…" Kawalsky set his now empty bottle down on the coffee table. "Colonel Jack O'Neill, who always is so touchy about military protocol, just called my second in command by her first name. You asked about how she was doing before you even asked how little-old-me is doing."

"She called me before you guys left, and she sounded pretty worried, I just wanted to make sure…"

"Uhuh." Kawalsky winked. "You just keep telling yourself that, Colonel. Anyway, you'll be able to ask her yourself on Monday, Hammond wants you in to start working on that weird cube thingy."

"Yes, sir," Jack said with a little half salute.

* * *

Jack discovered that he actually liked the commissary at the SGC far better than the one near his office at the Academy. Even the oatmeal tasted better. Monday morning he got to work early so he could take his leisurely time eating breakfast before being dragged off for whatever tests Sam had planned for him. He hadn't been sitting down for very long when Sam entered, looking exhausted. She grabbed a bowl of cereal and slipped into the seat across from him.

"You look like hell," Jack said, his gaze lingering on the cut across her cheek and the slight bruise on her forehead. "Weren't you suppose to be resting this weekend?"

"Nice to see you too." She smiled tightly. "And yeah, I suppose. Too many bad dreams though."

Jack's expression softened. "Sorry. Your dad okay?"

"Mmm. He's got the Tok'ra looking after him." She peered at Jack, her eyes suddenly flashing in amusement. "You remember who they are right?"

"Sheesh, didn't know you were going to actually quiz me on those files!" Jack rolled his eyes then thought a minute. "They're the ones with the snakes in their heads. Except not the bad ones. The nice ones."

"Nice-ish." Sam laughed softly. She took a few bites of cereal. "So today we're going to try and figure out what that cube is supposed to do, exactly. Daniel's going to help us, seeing as he can probably read whatever language it…" Her voice trailed off.

Leaning forward, Jack tilted his head questioningly. "Care to share with the class?"

"I was just…thinking…"

"She does that a lot, Colonel," Kawalsky said as he and Teal'c took the other two seats at the table. Teal'c had a tray piled with just about every food offered for breakfast, and didn't seem to want to pay attention to any of his teammates until he'd had a chance to dig in. Kawalsky was just ready to start in on Jack, apparently. "Thinking I mean. Drifting off too, but the thinking is the important part."

Sam narrowed her eyes at him. "Thanks, sir."

"I take it they do that a lot?" Jack asked Teal'c. The other man, alien, whatever, had finally glanced up from his food.

"Indeed," Teal'c said. Jack guessed the expression he now wore was one of mild bemusement.

"It's just my way of making Carter seem a little more human, you know!" Kawalsky protested. He too shot Teal'c a look. "No offence."

"Kawalsky," Jack said. "Sam seems like the type of person who could blow you up with a toaster, I'd think you'd be a little nicer to her."

Sam snorted. "I don't think Colonel Kawalsky needs any help blowing himself up with a toaster."

"I believe MajorCarter successfully fried you, ColonelKawalsky," Teal'c said.

Jack barely choked down a burst of laughter. "T, unless that's some weird alien saying, I think the word you're looking for is 'burned'."

"Burned…also an accurate description of Major Carter's cooking," Kawalsky said, narrowing his eyes at his 2IC.

Sam pretended to be focused on her cereal. "Two words, sir: chocolate cake."

Judging by the look on Kawalsky's face, Jack guessed this was some inside joke between them. Or inside insult.

"Jack," Sam said, looking thoroughly pleased with herself. "Lets go find Daniel and get started on those tests." She got to her feet and went to dump her tray.

Jack stood as well and looked back over his shoulder in time to see Kawalsky mouth "Have fun."


	4. Jack Through the Looking Glass

Chapter 4: Jack Through the Looking Glass 

"Maybe it's a game."

"I don't think it's a game."

"It looks like a game."

"Jack." Sam looked up at him over the top of her computer screen. "I don't think you should be…playing with that until I can run some more tests."

He turned the cube over in his hands, looking at the various symbols and shapes displayed on the glowing sides. "Okay, Miss Smarty-pants, but didn't you bring me here to test it? So."

Closing her laptop, Sam picked up a note pad and pen and moved around the lab table to sit next to him. "Yeah, but lets do this systematically." She copied down a symbol that appeared in a yellow box on one side of the cube. "Okay."

Jack quirked an eyebrow. He touched the box with his thumb, and the whole side of the cube changed, displaying what looked like some weird, alien writing.

"This looks very similar to some writing we found on P3R-272, which contained a device we couldn't activate either…" Sam said. "I'd theorized it was made by the same race, but this just confirms it."

"Yipee." Jack turned the cube around again. "Did anyone ever tell you that you're a really huge nerd?"

She grinned weakly. "The colonel does on an almost daily basis."

"If I was in his position, I think someone like you would drive me nuts."

"Gee, thanks."

"Luckily I'm not though." He grinned at her.

Sam looked down, taking the cube from him and setting it on the table. "So I don't, then."

"What?"

"I don't drive you nuts."

"Oh far from it, Samantha." He wiggled his eyebrows and reached for his coffee mug. He watched her as she continued to copy down the writing from the cube. "You look a little too pleased with yourself." A bright symbol began flashing in red over the writing on the cube. "Oh, what's that…" Pointing to it, Jack's finger brushed the surface of the cube.

"Jack! Don't, red usually means…" But it was too late, and Sam finished lamely, "…bad."

"Red usually means bad?" Jack parroted, staring at her.

Sam shook her head, reaching out to squeeze his shoulder. "Sorry."

"Sorry? It's not like that actually did anything I mean we're –" Jack stopped mid sentence when Sam clamped her other hand, the one that wasn't on his shoulder, over his mouth.

"Where…the hell…are we…" she whispered, staring around.

Because suddenly they weren't in her lab. They were in a large, smooth looking, dark colored room full of strange, buzzing machinery. Okay, Jack thought, so that basically described Sam's lab. Except that her lab didn't have a huge window looking down at the planet Earth.

"Greetings Colonel O'Neill and Major Carter."

They spun around. Sam didn't seem too shocked. Jack actually felt disappointed, he hadn't expected his first encounter with an alien other than Teal'c to be so…expected. But standing in the doorway was a little, gray, Roswell like alien.

"I am Thor, supreme commander of the Asgard fleet," the alien said, taking a few steps into the room and moving to stand behind a control panel.

Jack reached up to tug Sam's hand away from his mouth. All he could do for a few minutes was gape at the little thing. In some ways, seeing exactly what he had expected to see when someone said 'alien' was more shocking than if Thor had been fifteen feet tall with purple antennae. Jack wet his lips and swallowed. "_Supreme_ commander, you say?"

* * *

"You must forgive me," Thor said when he had directed them to two strange, chair type things. "I only meant to bring Colonel O'Neill."

"Oh no, no need to ask for forgiveness," Jack said quickly. "Sam actually knows what the hell is going on here, so if you didn't bring her I would be really, really confused. She's the brains of the operation."

Thor blinked at him. "I am well aware of Major Carter's intelligence. What concerns us is your genetics, O'Neill. The fact that you were able to activate the device you just did means that human kind may be more advanced than we had originally thought."

Sam, who still had her hand on Jack's arm, leaned forward slightly. "Does this have to do with that weird gene that we found in him?"

"It is a remnant of one of the four great races," Thor said, nodding. "It means that O'Neill is, for lack of a better word, slightly more advanced."

At a loss for words, Jack turned to look at Sam. She had that pondering expression on her face, and was clearly puzzling over all these new little bits of information. After a minute she looked back up at him and shrugged, shaking her head.

Thor continued to peer at them with his wide, dark eyes. He seemed to be waiting for a response, and when the two humans continued to just stare at each other, the alien continued. "I do not believe you need to be concerned for your health, O'Neill. On the contrary, with this knowledge the Asgard would like to maintain a closer relationship with you."

"Cool," Jack said. "Great, new friends."

"So is that it?" Sam asked quietly.

"There is one other thing. Your son, O'Neill."

Jack stiffened. "No."

"The chances are he is even more advanced than you, we would greatly like to –"

"I said no." Jack said. "I don't care how advanced he is, my kid's not getting involved in any of this. I'm not putting him in danger. End of discussion."

"Very well." Thor pressed a button on the control panel. "I will return you to Earth now. But we will not be far."

And just like that, they were back in Sam's lab, with alarms blaring.

* * *

"They both seem fine to me, General." It was an hour later and Dr. Fraiser had just finished giving Sam and Jack a thorough examination. As much as Jack liked the doc, he was getting quite irritated by this point.

"Look, I said I'm fine, _physically_," he growled. General Hammond and Fraiser both turned to look at him. Sam sat on the next bed over, Kawalsky leaning on the wall nearby and Daniel and Teal'c hovering worriedly in the door. "But you're not helping with the whole metaphorical head spinning. Maybe the rest of you are used to getting beamed up by aliens, but I need some time to think this over!"

"You'll be able to leave soon, colonel," Hammond said. "But one more time, what did the Asgard tell you?"

"Actually, nothing we didn't know already, really," Sam said. "Thor just alluded to Jack's advanced genetics and how they're related to this ancient race…he also suggested that Jack's son might have them as well."

"Which is a moot point because Charlie does not need to get involved." Jack checked his watch. "Speaking of which, my son is going to be getting home from school soon, so I would like to go now."

"Very well." Hammond didn't seem pleased, but he also didn't seem like he wanted to argue with Jack about it. "Major Carter, I'd like to speak with you in my office."

"Yeah." Sam nodded. "I'm just going to walk Jack to the elevator, then I'll be right up."

Out in the hall, Jack walked beside Sam, though he was quiet, staring at his feet. He didn't say anything until they were at the elevator doors. "I'm fine. I just need to go home and get some rest and…" he wiggled his fingers around his head. "Process this all."

Sam grabbed his arm to stop him from immediately getting on the elevator. After staring at him for a moment, she guessed what was really bothering him. "Jack…we're not going to let anything happen to Charlie."

He took a deep breath and nodded, managing a light smile as he touched her cheek, then slid his hand down to squeeze her shoulder. "I'll see you tomorrow, Sam."

"Night," she murmured, watching him get on the elevator.

* * *

_The scene Jack and Sara had found in their bedroom was not the horror either had imagined. Their little boy stood in the middle of the room, looking terrified but otherwise unharmed. Jack didn't even really hear whatever Sara was shouting as she moved to pull Charlie into her arms on the bed, looking him over._

"_He's not hurt..." she kept repeating, over and over. "He's not hurt, oh god, Jack…"_

_Jack bent to pick up the Sig from where Charlie had dropped it. He ejected the magazine and emptied the chamber, then looked around, trying to see where Charlie had shot. "Kiddo…" he said, even to him his voice sounding numb. "Where…?"_

_Charlie blinked. He raised one hand and pointed to the middle of his own forehead._

"_No, Charlie," Sara said quickly. "You didn't hurt yourself, you're fine…"_

_Jack looked around again. Nothing was broken. Nothing had a bullet hole in it._

* * *

Charlie looked up from his homework to glare at his father. "What? Why are you staring at me?"

"I'm not," Jack said, holding up his hands. "I just happened to be staring and you were in the way. How was school?"

"Fine." Charlie made a face. "You look like hell."

"Thanks. Long day." Jack moved to sit at the end of the couch. "Long, confusing day."

Charlie didn't seem particularly concerned. Jack picked up the remote and absently flipped through the channels until he found a hockey game. After about half an hour Charlie closed his books and put them back in his bag.

"I'm going over to Alex's."

Jack glanced at the clock. "Bud, it's a school night. Don't be gone too late."

Not fifteen minutes after Charlie left, there was a knock on the door. Jack answered it to find Sam standing there, wearing a leather jacket with a motorcycle helmet tucked under one arm. She laughed at the look on Jack's face. "Hey, I have to keep my commute interesting."

"Because you have such a boring job, right?" Jack asked, rolling his eyes as he motioned her inside. "Can I get you anything? Beer or...uh, beer."

Sam grinned. "Beer sounds fine." She hung up her coat and helmet, and followed Jack into the kitchen. "I was just on my way home, I thought I might stop by and just…check in. You seemed a bit ruffled when you left this afternoon."

"Oh yes, well," Jack pulled two bottles from the fridge and started hunting through a drawer for the opener. "If you count being snatched up by aliens then told that I have some weird genetic abnormality that makes me more advanced than most humans, and to top that off that my son might have it even worse….then yes, I'm a bit ruffled."

"Charlie not home?" Sam asked, taking a bottle as they moved back into the living room to sit down.

"Yeah, he's over at a friend's house." Jack leaned back on the couch, tipping his head as he watched Sam. She sat a little stiffly on the edge of the cushion, fidgeting with the label of her beer bottle, but it was that endearing sort of awkwardness that she seemed to have whenever she wasn't buried in work. "I'm gonna be fine," Jack said. "Really. It's just…weird."

Sam smiled. "Yeah, I remember, when I first started. And I don't even have a family or anything to be worrying about on top of it. I mean, there's my dad, but he's involved now so…" She shrugged and took a sip of her beer.

"Kawalsky know you're here?" Jack asked.

"The colonel doesn't need to know everything I do in my private time," Sam said. She raised her eyebrow at Jack.

"Oh, so I'm part of your private time now, am I?"

Sam just giggled. "I…don't even know what that's supposed to mean, but…yes?"

"Hey." Jack leaned over, using her shoulder to push her back so she was actually in a comfortable position on the couch. "Relax."

Sam grinned at him until he scooted a little closer, then she rested her head on his shoulder, letting out a soft, content sigh. Jack draped one arm around her, feeling remarkably content to sit there in silence.

"It's a really good thing you're not in Kawalsky's position," Sam said, sitting up finally and turning to face him.

Jack tried not to look too disappointed. "Oh? Why?"

"Goodnight, Jack." She leaned in to press a soft kiss to the corner of his mouth, and was just getting to her feet when the front door opened and closed. A minute later Charlie appeared in the door to the living room, coming to a full stop when his spotted Sam.

"Oh, Charlie," Jack stood up as well. "This is Major Carter…Sam, this is my son Charlie."

"Hi," Sam said, smiling and giving Charlie a little wave.

He narrowed his eyes almost imperceptibly, watching her warily before nodding. "Hey. Dad, I'm gonna go to bed. See you in the morning." And before Jack had a chance to answer, the boy had turned and vanished down the hall.

Sam looked to Jack and winced slightly. He just shrugged, held up his hands in a 'what can you do with teenagers' type of gesture, then touched her arm as they started towards the front door.


	5. In Over My Head

Chapter 5: In Over My Head

As he zipped up the standard issue black BDU vest, Jack tried to remember the last time he had suited up to go into the field. Really into the field, that is, not accompanying cadets on one of their training exercises out in the mountains like he did sometimes. But now he was heading out again. That is assuming you could count traveling to another planet as going into the field.

When they reached a certain impasse with the strange box – Daniel took over and was spending his free time translating the strange writing Jack had been able to unlock – Sam requested that they make a return trip to the planet P3R-272, where she said they had found another device by the same race. This time she wanted to bring Jack along to see what he could do with it.

"It's risky," she said for the fiftieth time as they walked down the hall to the armory.

Jack shot her a look. Kawalsky and Teal'c were ahead of them, getting their P90s and those strange little alien gun things. "I know, Sam. I remember how it works."

"No, you don't." She said flatly. Now that it was the actual day of the mission, she had grown strangely anxious.

"Okay…" Jack held his hands up, deciding he wasn't going to push the matter. If she wanted to be worried, let her.

Geared up and armed, they went back down to the gate room. Now Jack's adrenaline was kicking in, and he watched in slack jawed amazement as the Stargate swirled to life.

"Have you ever seen _2001: A Space Odyssey_?" Sam asked suddenly. She was still looking at the gate, the blue light of the wormhole reflecting in her eyes and turning her skin a pale aqua.

"Sure," Jack said. "Saw it in theaters. Seem to remember wishing I'd been high at the time."

She looked at him. "You know that big black rectangle thing in it?"

"Uhuh."

"In the original book by Arthur C. Clarke, that was called a Star Gate."

"No kidding." Of course she would know that.

Sam gave him a light smile, probably her way of apologizing for her tense mood earlier. "That's one of the few science fiction movies I can stand to watch. Most of them I just pick apart."

"She's not joking, sadly," Kawalsky said, grinning over his shoulder at them. "Alright, team, ready to head out?"

He and Daniel led the way up the ramp, vanishing one after the other through the shimmering event horizon. Sam shot Jack a reassuring smile before touching his arm. They started up the ramp, and Jack fumbled mentally to remember everything he had been told about going through the gate.

"Okay," Sam said. "Exhale, then just step through. It's really cold, but that's it."

Jack looked at her, wondering again how she could possibly be so casual about this. "One small step for Jack," he said, winking. Then he faced the gate, took a breath, let it out, and plunged through.

* * *

"_I thought you didn't want to talk about it," Sara said when Jack came into the kitchen. It was nearly a week after the _incident_. _

_Jack leaned against the counter. "It just doesn't make sense. There's something going on with Charlie, I can't shake that feeling. You know last night when we were outside he just pointed up at the sky and started naming the stars."_

_Sara slammed the dish she had been cleaning back into the dishwater. "He made those up, Jack. He's incredibly smart, we knew that. I don't know what happened with the gun, but we should just be glad we still have our child!" _

_He had shrugged and went off. What Jack hadn't told Sara was that some of the other stuff Charlie had been babbling about recently, stuff about the stars and ancient Egyptian gods, Jack had casually looked up on the internet. All of his searches pointed him to the articles of a certain oddball archaeologist who seemed to have slipped into obscurity._

* * *

Strangely enough the first thought through Jack's head when he stepped through the gate was that he remembered suddenly where he had heard the name Daniel Jackson before. He made a mental note to tell Daniel that Charlie had been reading his papers by the age of eleven.

When he looked around, all thoughts of Daniel Jackson's previous works vanished.

They stood inside some sort of large, bare space, made of concrete or something like it. Jack could see something on the wall at the far end, and a ring of writing on the floor. Kawalsky cleared the area, not that he seemed to particularly anticipate anyone being there, and then Sam led Jack over to the wall.

"The hell is that?" Jack asked, eyeing the strange device suspiciously. Unlike the box, this was very conspicuous. Very. Suspicious, threatening, even. Whatever, he didn't feel too keen on getting any closer to it. "You know what it looks like?"

"It bears a strange resemblance to the Sarlacc from the beginning of the third Star Wars movie, when it is not active."

"New best friend!" Jack spun around and pointed at Teal'c. "New best friend in the whole…" he was about to say 'world,' then thought better of it. "Galaxy."

Teal'c bowed. "Thank you, Colonel O'Neill."

"Jack." Sam rolled her eyes, then nodded back at the device again. "I'd really like to know what it actually does."

"Lets hope it doesn't eat Jedi or I am so screwed," Jack said, unable to help himself. He took a cautious step closer to the device, leaning in, unsure of what he was actually supposed to do.

The device let out a strange noise and expanded. IN the center, now, Jack could see something like a blank television screen. He leaned in closer. Without warning the thing changed again, clamping something over the back of his head. Jack let out a shout and struggled, he could feel Sam and Kawalsky (he assumed) trying to pull him out of it.

The screen flashed to life. Bright lights, things Jack couldn't understand, diagrams, pictures, writing, sounds, faces…

And then nothing.

* * *

Sam wrapped her arms around herself, slumping back in the chair and staring at Jack's still form on the infirmary bed. She felt awful, overwhelmed by guilt, terrified that something had happened to Jack that would be irreversible.

"Sam."

"Oh!" She saw him shift, his forehead wrinkle, then he opened his eyes.

"What the hell was that?" Jack asked, scowling as he tried to sit up. He looked around, confused. "Where am I?"

Sam smiled lightly. "Teal'c carried you back."

"Good man." Jack rubbed his head.

"How are you feeling?" she asked softly. Janet had said there was nothing wrong with him, but Sam would still worry.

Jack absently patted her hand. "Absolutely fine. What time is it?"

"About two pm. Hammond wants to talk to us as soon as you're feeling up to it."

He was staring at her with one of those penetrating gazes of his, and then to Sam's surprise he reached out and brushed the backs of his fingers over her cheek. "Sam, I'm fine, really. You don't need to look so worried."

"Just feel bad," she said, squeezing his hand.

* * *

It wasn't long until Sam realized that something was very, very wrong. Jack said "cruvus" instead of wrong, and they rushed him right back to the infirmary. Janet did numerous more MRIs and exams that seemed to annoy Jack only more, ("Get that big honking _acu_ away from me!" he had shouted when she approached him with a needle).

* * *

"It isn't any sort of standard aphasia I've ever encountered," Janet said.

Jack couldn't ever remember being more frustrated in his life. He couldn't even tell he was speaking in another language unless he paid really close attention when he was talking, and that just wasn't something he was used to doing. What he hated most was the look on Sam's face. She looked so upset, so worried.

Crap. Maybe he should just admit that he liked her, a lot.

A few hours later communication had just become too much of a chore, so he gave up talking all together and took to just listening. This was also something he was not used to doing.

"The incredible thing is," Janet said. "Col. O'Neill's brain is operating at 90% capacity…"

Cool. But boring. Jack fidgeted. While Daniel was babbling, Jack surreptitiously slipped the file folder from in front of the archaeologist. He flipped through the pages, found the photocopied sheets of writing from the strange cube, and began absently doodling on them.

"Oh my god," Sam said a moment later. She grabbed his arm. "Daniel, Jack's…translating the writing."

Jack paused to pinch his nose. His head was splitting. "Doc, could I have some painkillers…?"

Janet blinked at him uncomprehendingly, but she seemed to get something for she asked, "Does your head hurt?"

Jack nodded emphatically, then had to reach over and pry Sam's hand off his arm.

"The problem is," Janet said reluctantly, her eyes fixed on Jack. "From what I can tell, his brain is…literally bursting at the seams. If we don't do something soon, it may just stop functioning."

Well that was an unpleasant thought. "Excuse me," Jack said, and judging from the looks on everyone's faces, that bit had actually come out in English.

He honestly didn't know where he was going or why. The best analogy he could come up with was that half of his brain was high as balls, and the other half completely sober. The half that had been doing whatever crazy alien drugs also happened to be the half in control of his body…sadly.

The control room was almost completely empty when Jack got down there. His still functioning half sat by and twiddled its proverbial thumbs while his overloading half started furiously typing things into the computer. The functioning half grew smaller, and seemed to shrink to a tiny little fraction of consciousness. Jack felt a bit like he'd just overdosed on vicodin.

"Colonel O'Neill, stop this instant!" Hammond's voice echoed through the control room. Clearly the others had noticed something was wrong.

Jack glanced up, but continued typing. "Can't, sir, I'm sorry…" Plain English. That was good. "I don't know what I'm doing."

Teal'c came in handy again and physically lifted Jack from the chair.

_That's alright,_ the drugged up alien part of his brain thought. _We were finished anyway_.

* * *

He spun in the chair, stopped, listened, then spun around in the other direction. The rest of the team was up in the briefing room again talking to Hammond, but Jack, who had lost the ability to communicate completely, was stuck down in an isolation room. He kept thinking how he was supposed to pick Charlie up from school in a couple hours. Maybe he could write a note and get Kawalsky to do it. Or Sam. He was sure Charlie didn't actually dislike her, he just was a teenager and had to pretend he hated everyone.

Think of the devil. The door slid open and Sam walked in. The frown had become a permanent fixture.

"Well," she said, taking a deep breath as she walked over to him. "You put a bunch of new gate addresses in our database, so that's good…"

Jack nodded, wishing he could say something.

"But…your last brain scan…" she shook her head, looking down for a moment.

Shit, was she actually crying? Jack was no good with people crying, even when he was in full control of his speech.

"It's going to be okay," he said softly, reaching for her hand.

Sam sniffed. "I'm just going to assume that was something comforting."

He stared at her, then stepped closer and pulled her into his arms. Sam buried her face in his shoulder, clinging to him. He could feel her tense, maybe holding back tears or some more violent reaction. He gently rubbed her back.

"Sam." Well, there was something he could still say at least.

She looked up at him. "Yeah?"

He kissed her. It was a very chaste kiss, especially for Jack, he just pressed his lips to hers, one hand on the small of her back, the other lightly holding her hand. Sam stiffened for a moment, then relaxed against him, and when they pulled apart she rested her forehead against his, taking a few shaky breaths.

"I'm so sorry."

An idea flashed across his mind, almost like someone else had written it in Sharpie on his brain. He didn't quite know what it was, just that the gate needed more power. In the future he would appreciate the fact that he left Samantha Carter speechless, but at the moment he was focused on one thing only, and ran from the room.

* * *

Alarms started blaring, and Sam found Colonel Kawalsky and General Hammond down in the control room, which was abuzz with panicked activity as the gate activated. She nudged one of the sergeants out of the way and slipped in at the computer terminal.

"Major," Hammond said. "Dr. Jackson and Teal'c followed Col. O'Neill…but what's the gate doing?"

Sam brought up the dialing program, but shook her head. "Sir, we're not doing this."

"I can see that."

Down in the gate room Jack had somehow gotten past the guards. Sam stood up, leaning towards the glass to try and see him. At the bottom of the ramp Jack stopped and looked up at her.

"We can't just let him go," Hammond said, alarmed.

Sam shook her head. "I'm not sure we have a choice, sir..."

Jack stood at the bottom of the ramp, waiting patiently with his hands in his pockets, watching the gate spin, occasionally looking back over his shoulder at the control room.

"Sir!" Sam said, her eyes widening. Both Hammond and Kawalsky ran over to her. "Chevron seven just _encoded_, and it's not the point of origin...and...chevron eight is locked."

Kawalsky frowned. "We have eight chevrons?"

"The wormhole is going outside our galaxy," Sam breathed, her eyes wide. If Jack wasn't in such potential danger, she might find this exciting. But the minute the wormhole established and Jack started towards it, her heart began to pound even harder in her chest.

And then he was gone, the wormhole disconnected, and the gate room went silent.

"General, the entire system is offline," Sam said, standing up from the computer and turning to face Hammond. "We can't even close the iris, I don't know what -"

"Major," Sergeant Harriman appeared at her side. "Phonecall for you."

Sam ran her fingers through her hair. "I'm busy."

"They say it's an emergency. It sounds like a kid."

"I...what?" Sam frowned. She wondered if it possibly could be Cassie. Leaving the techs to look at the system some more, she went over and picked up the phone. "Hello?"

"Major Carter? It's Charlie."

"Charlie?" An instant lump in her throat. The one minute something awful goes wrong with his dad, the kid had to call. Maybe he had some sixth sense. "How did you…"

"Dad gave me the number in case of emergency." The boy was trying to sound sullen, but there was an unmistakeable overtone of worry. "Do you know where he is? He's supposed to be here picking me up. I mean, if he's busy I can get a ride with a friend…"

Sam took a deep breath. "Yeah, I'm sorry, Charlie, he's just in the middle of something right now, it's taking longer than we had expected…" Behind her there was an announcement of an incoming wormhole.

"What was that?" Charlie asked.

"Nothing, look, I need to go...but I'll have your dad give you a call when he's on his way home, alright?"

"Kay." Charlie sounded only mildly relieved. "He's okay, isn't he?"

Sam was silent for maybe a second too long, but Hammond was motioning her over impatiently. "Yeah. He'll be fine. I'll talk to you later." She hung up the phone, rushing over just in time to see the wormhole establish.

The defensive teams were in position, but Hammond almost instantaneously gave the order to stand down as a nonchalant looking Jack O'Neill stepped through the gate. Sam got to her feet and almost knocked Daniel over as she rushed down to the gate room.

"Hi." Jack said, grinning at them as he stepped down off the ramp. "I'm back."

Sam slowly turned to look at Daniel and Kawalsky, who had followed her down, then back up at Jack. She really just wanted to slap that smug grin off his face, then kiss him. Again.

"You stupid, lucky idiot," she muttered, staring at him.

"Gee, thanks." Jack said. He stepped forward and put an arm around her shoulders, looking at the others.

* * *

"Charlie called," Sam said softly. They were sitting in the infirmary, waiting for Janet to get back with his bloodwork. She had wanted to catch a few minutes with him before the debriefing, when they would be under risk of snarky comments from Kawalsky. "Right before you came back. He was worried."

Jack nodded. "I hope you don't mind I gave him the number."

"That's fine." She smiled lightly, reaching for his hand. Sam let out a little chuckle. "He was actually civil to me."

"Don't sound so surprised!" Jack said, squeezing her hand. "The kid just acts like that to everyone he meets. And he's still getting used to me not being with his mom, so seeing another woman around...I mean, not that I'm suggesting, that is…"

Sam looked down for a minute, laughing softly. Still holding his hand, she leaned in and kissed him gently. "Just stop thinking about it so hard."

"Done and done," Jack said, and pulled her close.


End file.
